Daily Chidush: Basketball on Shabbat

0:44But adults are not allowed. It's considered muktzeh. Now, so that in itself makes it forbidden for a man to play basketball or any other sport on Shabbat. Now, if, let's say, for example, the man has a child, he's allowed to play with a ball with that child. But again, it's with that child, not with a bunch of his friends, and he includes his five-year-old in the game. No, he's playing with the child. Yes, he's allowed. Why, why is it? Number one, Shabbat is not a day off. Shabbat is a day to get closer to Hashem. Shabbat is a day to sanctify Hashem—the highest level that you have throughout the whole week. It's a way to connect to Hashem. And basketball is considered something of the mundane. So if someone were to play basketball, let's say for the sake of exercise during the week, that's fine. But there's no need for that on Shabbat. He has six other days to do it. Do it on the other days. Shabbat is not a day to exercise. Shabbat is not a day to play with your friends. Shabbat is a day to connect to Hashem. The second thing is that it's important that a person is realistic with himself. If he's going to play basketball, surely within a matter of moments, he's going to start sweating.

2:10If he starts sweating, he's going to be more inclined to take a shower, which is also forbidden on Shabbat. Now, you might say that, no, no, no, he's going to play but he's not going to take a shower. You still have, number one, to deal with the fact that it's mundane. Number three, it means he's going to be smelly, and, you know, go to shul with all that smell and so on. It's not called Shabbat. It's not called a briut. It's not called anything. a person needs to know there is a time and a place for everything. You know, if a person wants to, for example, show his love and affection to his wife and he wants to give her a hug, no problem. But if he does it in public, it's forbidden. The Shulchan Aruch says it's forbidden to show affection to your wife in public. Even holding her hand is not allowed. Hugging her in public is also not allowed. So, you're going to say to me, wait a minute, so how come There are even rabbis that have pictures hugging their wives or even other women in public. These are called Erev Rav. Erev Rav refers to people causing harm, even though they're called rabbis. And I say this with a full understanding of what Lashon Hara is and what it needs to be. The reality is there's a lot of confusion today.

3:34And as Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman said, the biggest reason is because of the ro'im, the ro'im ra'im, the shepherds, the bad shepherds. There are many people that have the position of a rabbi, but they don't follow the law themselves. And because of that, people learn from their actions instead of learning from the books. And they think that it's allowed to do certain things. You see sometimes a rabbi playing basketball. You see sometimes a rabbi, you know, hugging his wife in public. That does not mean that you're allowed to do it. That just means that he is mistaken. He either does not know the law enough to be a rabbi, or he knows the law and he's simply ignoring it, which means he should not be a rabbi. So you cannot learn these things from rabbis in isolation. You have to learn it from the books. And the books specifically say these things are forbidden. As you saw, I brought you something that was very simple, a copy of a book. I have... It's Yalkut Yosef, it's a halachic book based on the psakim of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and obviously his son, the Rishon LeZion, Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef. In the beginning of the book, they mention many different sources regarding different Chachamim that discussed Shabbat, Chillul Shabbat, and observance of Shabbat, and so on. One of the things that they bring is the Gemara in Masechet Ta'anit, where HaKadosh Baruch Hu destroyed an entire city.

4:57Because people were violating Shabbat, not by driving cars like, unfortunately, people do today, but rather because they were playing with a ball on Shabbat. And I'm sure it wasn't the same thing as today, and it's probably lesser, and still, Hashem was furious enough to destroy an entire city because of it. And this is in the Gemara. A person who doesn't believe in the Gemara is considered a kofer, and he has no share in the God of Israel. He has no share in the world to come. So to say, no, no, but this is from a long time ago. A person that does not believe in it has no share in the World to Come. These are simple laws of the Torah, so it's important to know. Again, if you want to exercise by playing basketball during the week here and there, no problem. As long as it's in a modest setting and so on, and it's not taking place instead of you learning Torah—you're still going to be learning Torah on a regular basis—no problem. You can play basketball. But if you're going to start playing basketball on Shabbat, then you're using something that's allowed in a forbidden situation, which means it is forbidden. It's like having a beautiful and delicious dish of food, but you put some poison in it, which turns the entire delicious food into poison. So please don't poison yourself. Don't poison others. Have a holy Shabbat, a beautiful Shabbat, a Shabbat that HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants you to have.

6:21And that way you'll be able to feel what Oneg Shabbat really feels like. Enjoying Shabbat, not because it's a day off—it's not a day off—but because it's a day to connect to Hashem. Shabbat Shalom, Shabbat Mevorach. Baruch Hashem, we've completed another year at Be'ezrat Hashem. Rabbi Ephraim and I are very proud to announce some major milestones that we've achieved, Be'ezrat Hashem, and with your help, our dear partners. Over 60 million minutes of our Torah has been watched over the last year. That's a million hours of Torah to help people do teshuva and get closer to Hashem. Over 300,000 CDs have been distributed around the world for free. We've also delivered over a thousand lectures between the two of us, with Rav Chaim being added to the roster as well. Over 60,000 regular viewers are currently watching our content across various platforms. Over 200,000 answers regarding halacha, family, shalom bayit, and different topics are being regularly given to people. Over 10,000 people have been helped, whether through food or different financial issues. 1,000 families of Torah scholars are being helped by Irgun Be'ezrat Hashem.

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